Playability:
As far as game modes go there are
Friendlies against any other team in Europe that succeeded or failed to
reach this years finals. EURO 2000 is the main game allowing players to
guide their team from qualification through to the final in Rotterdam.
A Challenge is a quick tournament for up to eight players taking the form
of a simple 1-leg knockout beginning at the quarter-final stage. Golden
Goal involves two teams attempting to first reach a set goal target between
1-10. Skill Drill is a quick tutorial offering a guide through the button
functions and a chance to practice skills and moves. Finally, once you
win the Euro finals with any team the Classic mode opens up allowing semi's
and finals of all the previous 10 European championships to be played.
All of the standard options are available allowing rules, time limit,
injuries etc. to be adjusted. A word of warning... even on lenient strictness
the referee's decisions will completely baffle you. Obviously team management
plays an important part in success with formations, substitutions, tactics
and set plays all available to tamper with.
As usual EA Sports have their own ideas on button configuration and here
lies a massive annoyance that badly backfires on EURO 2000. Anyone who
owns several soccer titles will be aware that the button use changes from
game brand to game brand (and takes a few games to get use to again),
but unlike others the FIFA series insist on their decision being final.
This stubbornness means that you cannot alter their chosen button configuration.
Well this time they got it totally wrong and there is nothing you can
do about it. Why, why, why is the player select button now the same as
the pass (X) button? Do they realize that sometimes your player gets a
foot in without you realizing it and then immediately passes it straight
back to the opposition? What makes matters worse is that switching players
is now entirely manual, therefore if you don't press the X button you
won't be in control of the player nearest the ball (probably not even
on the screen). To make matters even worse the conservative tackle button
is now the same as the shoot (O) button. Yeah… you guessed it… tackle,
tackle, tackle, shoot… shit! Surely only an octopus could tap, tap, tap
the triangle button (run), while tap, tap, tapping the X button (constantly
switching to player nearest the ball), while tap, tap, tapping the circle
button (putting a foot in), which results in a shot at goal from a deep
defensive position. Come on guys… play test the damn game after you meddle
with what already works.
If you eventually get to grips with the strange button configuration you
are left with a game that suffers from all the same niggles as FIFA 2000.
On Amateur difficulty you will probably put a dozen past the No.1 seed
inside an eight-minute game. On the Professional difficulty level a similar
number of goals will probably have hit the back of your net by half time,
while playing against a human opponent will result in a ridiculous scoreline
of something in the region of 12-10. What EA Sports soccer games have
always needed was something in between. That's not just me talking, but
countless emails we receive covering the same subject.
Game
Options:
This is a 1 disk game for 1 or 2 Players
(1-8 player when using 2 Multi-taps). It is compatible with the standard
(digital) joypad and the analog stick controls of the dual shock joypad.
Games can be saved via memory card (2-4 blocks per save). |
